Mike Well’s Lust, Money, & Murder (Book 1)

[Reginald]

It may seem a crazy thing to do.  I mean writing about a book that you haven’t even finished reading yet.

So why bother?  I bothering because Mike Well’s “Lust, Money, & Murder” is written in three parts and part one is a good teaser that’s leading me to download parts two and three.  Let’s face it.  I want to see what happens next.

For those of you who haven’t read part one, here’s the upshot. 

Elaine Brogan comes from a lower middle-class family in Pittsburgh.  Her father, Patrick recognizes that his little girl is someone very special.

Patrick Brogan will do absolutely anything to ensure that his precious child will not have to endure the hardship of poverty that he’s had to put up with.  Yes, I mean he will do ANYTHING!  And that includes stealing money from his long-held construction job to pay for her expensive private schooling.

Nice guys sometimes finish last, even if they mean well.  Through no fault of his own, Patrick is accused of passing counterfeit bills and arrested.  His year’s long involvement in theft from the construction site is also discovered.  He is now facing 25 years in prison.

A proud man who can not bare the shame of imprisonment, Patrick Brogan commits suicide.

Elaine Brogan, now a teenager and very much alone, is determined to find the real culprit in the counterfeiting scam, and obtain justice for her deceased father.  She makes a vow to join the Secret Service and learn everything she can about the counterfeiting business.

Now fast-forward year’s later to Sofia, Bulgaria where she has been transferred.  Elaine has a natural talent for identifying fake money.  She’s passionate about her profession and also about her new boss, Nick La Grange, Special Agent in Charge.

Nick is a very good protector and mentor.  There isn’t much about the counterfeiting business that he doesn’t know. 

But there are little quirks in Nick’s personality.  Truth be told, he may be involved in some shady dealings in the counterfeiting profession.   And it seems that his bosses in Washington are on to him. 

So, what can a soon to be fired and arrested Special Agent in Charge do when faced with public disgrace, ruin, and jail time? 

I wish I could tell you, but I don’t know!  I haven’t read book 2 (or three) yet. 

in any case, it’s the counterfeiting theme of this book that caught my attention.  Counterfeiting isn’t exactly front page news like murder, drug running, or the like.  And yet, it is a $600 billion dollar problem annually.  That’s enough of a problem to impact entire economies world-wide. 

I was less interested in Elaine Brogan’s romantic problems.  I like a little harder edge to my crime dramas and thrillers. 

All in all, this is shaping up to be a good read.  I’ll keep you posted.